MAS Announces Business Continuity Guidelines and Green Bond Framework
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) revised the business continuity management guidelines while the Singapore government published the green bond framework, which is a governance framework for sovereign green bond issuances under the Significant Infrastructure Government Loan Act 2021 (SINGA).
Revised Guidelines on Business Continuity Management. The guidelines on business continuity management set out the need for financial institutions to take an end-to-end service-centric view in ensuring the continuous delivery of critical business services to their customers. The guidelines aim to help financial institutions strengthen their resilience against service disruptions arising from information technology outages, pandemic outbreaks, cyber-attacks, and physical threats. They introduce principles and practices that financial institutions can implement to strengthen their operational resilience. The revisions incorporate lessons learned from the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and increased digitalization in the financial sector. The revised guidelines also consider feedback from two rounds of public consultation. The revised guidelines provide new insights on measures that financial institutions can take to better manage the increasingly complex operating environment and threat landscape to enable the continuous delivery of services to their customers. The revised guidelines stipulate that financial institutions should:
- adopt a service-centric approach through timely recovery of critical business services facing customers
- identify end-to-end dependencies that support critical business services and address any gaps that could hinder the effective recovery of such services
- enhance threat monitoring and environmental scanning, and conduct regular audits, tests, and industry exercises
Singapore Green Bond Framework. The green bond framework details the Singapore government’s intended use of green bond proceeds, governance structure to evaluate and select eligible projects, operational approach to manage green bond proceeds, and commitment to post-issuance allocation and impact reporting. The eligibility criteria for the Green Categories have been developed with reference to internationally recognized market principles and standards such as the ICMA Green Bond Principles and the Climate Bond Initiative (CBI) Taxonomy and Sector Criteria. Proceeds from green bonds issued under the framework will be used to finance expenditures in support of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. The Singapore government has announced, in Budget 2022, that the public sector will issue up to SGD 35 billion of green bonds by 2030. The government will be issuing its inaugural sovereign green bond, known as Green SGS (Infrastructure) bonds under the SINGA in the coming months. These bonds will be used to finance nationally significant infrastructure which meet the green criteria under the framework. MAS will undertake the issuance and management of Singapore Government Securities on behalf of the government. MAS will provide more details about the upcoming issuance of the Green SGS (Infrastructure) bond closer to its issuance date. These current initiative are aimed to support Singapore’s transition to a low-carbon economy and spur the country's development as a green finance hub.
Keywords: Asia Pacific, Singapore, Banking, Business Continuity, Operational Resilience, ESG, Sustainable Finance, Green Bonds, Green Bond Framework, MAS
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